Learn Drawing - Where Should I Be Starting A Picture?

Recently I was asked a question that seems common among beginning artists who just start to learn drawing: "how and where to start a drawing??" Don't be mislead into believing this is easy and impractical question. Although the answer may seem obvious, I've seen a lot of artists that are unsuccessful because they don't pursue these principles.

Once artists come up with a new drawing without an organized and structured format they can fail. Not that I have faith in structures and stringent rules. Sticking to some really plain and obvious rules when preparing a new drawing will make your work hassle free.

Why do you want to draw?

First inquire yourself not only what you desire to draw but also why do you desire to draw it? What is the communication you're trying to convey with the viewer? Knowing the communication you're trying to express to your viewers is a vital first step. For example, envisage that you want to draw an image of a dog and then ask yourself why? Is it to show how cute he is? Is it to show how good hunter he is? To give an idea about how risky he is? Is it in reminiscence of him?

Having understood what to communicate the next step is to how you can use the elements and techniques you have to put across the message. You can use perspective, dark and shadows, colors, composition, add different details, use different drawing techniques etc.

Next you should try out where your picture is going by making lots of small thumbnail sketches. Try various ways to create the drawing, see what actually looks good and what doesn't. Make these sketches quickly. The idea is to put the overall composition into place, so you don't need to spend time adding a lot of niceties on them.

It's sometimes very difficult, even for professional artists, not to jump ahead and start on the final picture before things are really contemplated upon. But this situation often ends with that effort going into the drain once you've realized that your first idea didn't work the way you'd first thought. So it's a very good idea to use the first few steps when starting a drawing as it will save you a lot of work in the long run.

Getting started drawing

You have finally sketched a composition you like to convert in a full-blown drawing? Then it's time to get started. This time it is not how fast you can draw but how beautiful your drawing is that you want to endeavor. And there are some tips that will help you to create the beautiful drawing you want to create- without too many attempts going to waste.

It's all about the order in which to come up to the different parts of your drawing ideally. All in all there are just two simple rules:

Initiate with light tones, graduate to darker tones

This lets you to rectify little mistakes you've done early in the beginning as the darker tones can hide any of your mistakes.

Begin with little details and get into more details later

In most cases the drawings are ruined by distorted proportions, perspective and composition. Now start first by arranging the total drawing without details just in faint lines. This makes definite you'll make all errors in perspective and proportions early in the procedure. If something goes really wrong then, you can start over again without losing too much work. All less significant errors still can be rectified without difficulty as there are only pale lines and no details in position.

Inspite of you being qualified and drawing for years, it won't be wrong to ponder on these guidelines once more. In fact I'm forgetting these guiding principles very often - and bringing in errors into my drawings that could have been prevented. And you'll observe these guidelines are even more helpful, if you've just set out to learn drawing.